By Delisa Morris
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
BOGOTA, Colombia — Last week during negotiations, the FARC, Colombia’s largest rebel group, agreed to stop recruiting soldiers under 17. This week news comes that the FARC will discharge any child soldiers under the age of 15. The group has said to have captured children as young as 13 to join their ranks.
The leader, Ivan Marquez, told a radio program that the recruitment of children was “not our policy”. Marquez said there are currently 13 children under the age of 15 fighting with the Marxist group.
Marquez, who is one of the FARC negotiators at peace talks in the Cuban capital, Havana, told Colombian’s Caracol Radio that “after internal consultation with the guerrilla structures across the country, the Farc leadership could determine there were only 13 fighters younger than 15” in its ranks.
He said they would be “discharged from the war within a short period of time”.
According to Marquez, the children are descendants of guerrilla fighters or had joined the FARC after they had been orphaned. Though human rights groups have long accused the FARC of forcibly recruiting children.
Figures released by Colombia’s Ministry of Defence suggest that since 2002 more than 2,600 children under the age of 18 have left the Farc, either fleeing the group or being captured by security forces.
Although a majority were between the ages of 16 and 17, figures suggest more than one third of the child soldiers were younger.
The peace talks between the FARC and the Colombian government have commenced in November 2012.
They have reached partial agreements on a number of issues, including on the drugs trade, land reform and political participation.
They are currently discussing the rights of victims of the five-decade-long conflict, which has killed more than 220,000 people.
For more information, please see:
BBC News – Colombian Farc rebels ‘will discharge fighters under 15’ – 17 Feb. 2015
tele sur – FARC Discharges Under 15s to Comply with International Law – 18 Feb. 2015
Latin American Herald Tribune – Colombia’s FARC to Discharge Minors Under 15 – 18 Feb. 2015
Latin Post – Colombia and Farc Peace Talks, Conflicts, History & News: Rebels to Discharge Child Soldiers Younger Than 15 – 17 Feb. 2015
